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The 'foreign agents' law that has set off mass protests in Georgia - podcast
Wed, 15 May 2024 02:00:28 GMT
The bill requires any civil society organisation that receives more than 20% of its funds from abroad to register as being under foreign influence. Daniel Boffey reports
On the face of it the bill could sound innocuous: any civil society organisation that receives more than 20% of its funds from abroad must register as an organisation under foreign influence. Yet the new law Georgia’s parliament passed yesterday has sparked outrage and demonstrations in the capital, Tbilisi.
Critics claim the bill is “Kremlin-inspired” as Putin passed a similar law in 2012, which they say has had a chilling effect on civil society. Demonstrators think it is a way to redirect Georgia towards Russia. The Guardian’s chief reporter, Daniel Boffey, has been speaking to young protesters – often schoolchildren – about why they are so incensed.
Continue reading...A new anti-terrorism bill would allow the government to take away vital tax exemptions from nonprofit news outlets.
The post Criticizing Israel? Nonprofit Media Could Lose Tax-Exempt Status Without Due Process appeared first on The Intercept.
Kouri Richins, 33, charged in Utah with murder over death of Eric Richins, who prosecutors say was fatally poisoned with fentanyl
A Utah judge on Wednesday postponed a hearing to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed to trial in the case of a woman charged with fatally poisoning her husband before she published a children’s book about coping with grief.
Judge Richard Mrazik delayed the hearing until 18-20 June after prosecutors said they would need three days to present their evidence against Kouri Richins, whose lawyer says she is innocent.
Continue reading...A former warehouse assistant for the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia pleaded guilty Wednesday to transporting millions of dollars worth of stolen Masters tournament memorabilia and historic items, including one of Arnold Palmer’s green jackets.
Richard Globensky, of Georgia, entered the plea during his initial appearance in federal court in Chicago.
Federal prosecutors said the 39-year-old would take items from the warehouse and sell and transport them to another party in Florida for sale online. The scheme went on for nearly a decade and Globensky made roughly $5m from the sales. As part of a plea deal, Globensky must write a $1.5m cashier’s check to the government.
He was charged with one count of transporting goods knowing they had been stolen.
“I plead guilty,” Globensky, who was wearing a suit and tie, told the judge.
The items – stolen between 2009 and 2022 – included T-shirts, mugs and chairs, and historic memorabilia, including green jackets and tickets to Masters tournaments in the 1930s. The total loss to Augusta National was more than $3m, according to prosecutors. A representative for Augusta National did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
Globensky declined to comment to reporters. His attorney, Thomas Church, said the case was being tried in Chicago because some of the stolen goods were recovered in the area.
Sentencing will be in late October. Globensky faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, but will likely get closer to two years in prison under the sentencing guidelines.
Augusta National hosts the annual Masters golf tournament. This year’s edition was won by Scottie Scheffler last month.
Judge expresses concern that previous warnings about former NEU official Neil Foden, 66, were ignored
A former headteacher has been found guilty of sexual offences against four girls, with a judge expressing concern that warnings about him were ignored.
Neil Foden, 66, who worked in schools in north Wales, was convicted of 19 offences and told he faces a lengthy jail term when he is sentenced in July.
Continue reading...Court order compels Google subsidiary to block local access to 32 videos of Glory to Hong Kong, judged to be prohibited content
Alphabet’s YouTube on Tuesday said it would comply with a court decision and block access inside Hong Kong to 32 video links deemed prohibited content, in what critics say is a blow to freedoms in the financial hub amid a security clampdown.
The action follows a government application granted by Hong Kong’s court of appeal requesting the ban of a protest anthem called Glory to Hong Kong. The judges warned that dissidents seeking to incite secession could weaponize the song for use against the state.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Judge accused Robert Courts of ‘mischaracterising evidence’ against Trudi Warner
The government’s most senior law officer is to appeal against a decision not to allow a contempt of court action against climate campaigner Trudi Warner for holding a placard on the rights of jurors outside a British court, the Guardian can reveal.
Mr Justice Saini ruled at the high court last month there was no basis to take action against Warner, 69, for holding up the sign informing jurors of their right to acquit a defendant based on their conscience. He said the government’s claim that her behaviour fell into the category of criminal contempt was “fanciful”.
Continue reading...After inquiries from The Intercept, Duane Kees stepped down from his ethics panel position.
The post This U.S. Attorney Resigned Amid an Ethics Investigation. Yet He Wound Up Overseeing Judges’ Ethics. appeared first on The Intercept.
Ukrainians’ decision whether to strike inside Russia, says Blinken; focus is on providing air defences including Patriots. What we know on day 813
The Ukraine peace summit planned by Switzerland has so far drawn delegations from more than 50 countries, the Swiss president, Viola Amherd, has said. Russia has not been invited, but Switzerland says it might be if Moscow had not repeatedly stated it is not interested. The Ukrainian government has said Russia does not negotiate in good faith anyway.
Amherd said she was in discussion about whether Switzerland might step aside from receiving a Patriot missile defence system that is due from the US, so Ukraine can get one sooner.
The Ukrainian presidential office has said additional reinforcements were being deployed in the Kharkiv region, including army reserve units. Heavy enemy fire prompted repositioning of some troops in the Kupiansk direction to the east of Kharkiv city, the general staff said on Wednesday. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president, has postponed all his upcoming foreign trips, underscoring the seriousness of the threat his soldiers are facing. The Ukrainian military said troops fell back from areas in Lukyantsi and Vovchansk near Kharkiv “to save the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses”, Peter Beaumont writes.
Vovchansk – 5km (three miles) from the Russian border – has been the focus of much of the recent fighting, and Ukrainian and Russian troops battled in its streets on Wednesday. Oleksii Kharkivskyi, head of the city’s patrol police, said Russian troops were taking up positions there, while the Ukrainian general staff said its forces were trying to flush them out.
Russia’s gains in the Kharkiv region must be a “wake up call”, the British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has said, adding that allies had become “distracted” from the war. “We must back [the Ukrainians] all the time, not just periodically,” Shapps said, adding that a $60bn US military package “took too long to get through Congress”.
Visiting Kyiv, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced a $2bn arms deal, with most of the money coming from the package approved by Congress last month.
Blinken said the US does not encourage Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied weapons but believes it is a decision Kyiv should make for itself. The US was focused on providing Patriot missile systems and other forms of critical air defence, he said.
The Russian defence ministry claimed its troops have retaken the village of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. The claim was unconfirmed. Ukrainian forces regained control of the village last August. Elsewhere in Ukraine’s southern regions, an aerial attack on the central district of Kherson wounded 17 civilians, the regional prosecutor’s office said. A Russian missile attack injured six people in Mykolaiv, according to Ukraine’s rescue service.
Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Thursday to meet with his counterpart Xi Jinping as he seeks greater support from Beijing for his war effort in Ukraine and his isolated economy. Putin, in an interview published in Xinhua ahead of his visit, hailed Beijing’s “genuine desire” to help resolve the Ukraine crisis. Blinken, who met Xi in Beijing last month, said China’s support for Russia’s “brutal war of aggression” in Ukraine had helped Russia ramp up production of rockets, drones and tanks – while stopping short of direct arms exports.
European Union ambassadors agreed in principle on Wednesday to add four Russian media outlets to the EU sanctions list, accusing them of propaganda: Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestija and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The EU also banned Russian funding of EU media, non-governmental organisations and political parties. It has previously imposed sanctions on Russian state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik.
Continue reading...Republican senator tells MSNBC that ‘frankly, the country doesn’t want to have to go through prosecuting a former president’
Joe Biden should have pardoned Donald Trump on all federal criminal charges the moment they were announced, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said.
“Had I been President Biden,” Romney said, “when the justice department brought out indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him. I’d have pardoned President Trump.”
Continue reading...Researchers also find lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in schools and say portion sizes sometimes not enough
Free school meal allowances are not enough for students from lower-income backgrounds to buy healthy school lunches, research suggests.
The study, presented at the European Congress of Obesity (ECO), involved 42 pupils aged between 11 and 15 at seven schools across the UK.
Continue reading...The 71-year-old veteran peace activist discusses the war on Gaza, the Biden administration, and shaking up Congress.
The post Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin on Disrupting the U.S. War Machine appeared first on The Intercept.
The 22-year-old woman and her child were civilian casualties of a U.S. drone strike, but the Pentagon won't return the family's messages.
The post Pentagon Compensated Zero Civilian Victims in 2022 — Despite Evidence That the U.S. Killed a Mom and Child in Somalia appeared first on The Intercept.
Supreme court judges order Arvind Kejriwal’s release until 1 June and question timing of his arrest on corruption charges
One of India’s best-known opposition leaders, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, has been granted bail by the country’s supreme court to allow him to take part in general election campaigningafter being kept behind bars for almost two months.
Kejriwal, who heads the Aam Aadmi party (AAP), has been held in jail since March when he was arrested on money-laundering charges. He has maintained that his arrest and detention was politically motivated to prevent him taking part in the election, which began in April and will continue until June.
Continue reading...The powerful lobbying group is going against a Capitol Police officer who fended off January 6 insurrectionists.
The post Neither Candidate Has Much to Say About Israel. So Why Is AIPAC Pouring Money Into This Race? appeared first on The Intercept.
Antony Blinken’s report identifies “incidents that raise concerns,” but says Israel is not blocking humanitarian aid.
The post Israel “Likely” Used U.S.-Supplied Weapons in Violation of International Law. That’s OK, Though, State Department Says. appeared first on The Intercept.
Four lawsuits alleging Hamas ties against Students for Justice in Palestine, the AP, UNRWA, and a cryptocurrency exchange share many of the same plaintiffs.
The post October 7 Survivors Sue Campus Protesters, Say Students Are “Hamas’s Propaganda Division” appeared first on The Intercept.
A donor to Dexter in the Portland congressional race tells The Intercept: “I give all my contributions through AIPAC.”
The post AIPAC and Republican Donors Raising Big Money for Maxine Dexter Against Susheela Jayapal in Oregon appeared first on The Intercept.
An open letter from government attorneys questions the legal cover for arms transfers to Israel.
The post Even Biden’s Lawyers Are Urging the White House to Change Course on Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
A former facility psychologist is suing the Bureau of Prisons over an Instagram account that joked about suicide at FCC Lompoc.
The post Who Ran This Derogatory Prison Meme Page? A Prison Guard. appeared first on The Intercept.
In talking points reviewed by The Intercept, the pro-Israel lobby argues that Israel has “no other option” but to invade Rafah.
The post As Biden Warns Against Rafah Invasion, AIPAC Pushes Congress to Support Israel’s Operation appeared first on The Intercept.
On campus, inside the Capitol, and in court, there’s an all-out assault on American democracy in the name of Israel.
The post They Used to Say Arabs Can’t Have Democracy Because It’d Be Bad for Israel. Now the U.S. Can’t Have It Either. appeared first on The Intercept.
Lots of complicated details here: too many for me to summarize well. It involves an obscure Section 230 provision—and an even more obscure typo. Read this.
Cannes film festival
Taylor-Joy makes a fantastic action heroine, facing down a hilariously evil Chris Hemsworth in signature high-speed fights
‘My childhood! My mother! I want them back!” With this howl of anguish, young Furiosa, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, sets the tone of vengeful rage that runs through George Miller’s immersive, spectacular prequel to his Mad Max reboot from 2015. Once again, there are the crazily colossal and weird convoy-action sequences which fuse the notion of “chase” and “violent combat” into a series of delirious high-velocity contests between motorbikes, 18-wheelers and armed parascenders all attacking and shooting at each other while fanatically zooming in the same direction. The vehicles themselves are what makes the Mad Max movies so very strange. Many films are called “surreal”, but these strange, ritualistic gladiator-vehicle displays in the reddish-brown emptiness really do look like something by Giorgio de Chirico or Max Ernst.
Furiosa is the origin story of the glamorous, one-armed badass from the first film. Incidentally, I haven’t seen an arm loss like this since 11-year-old midshipman Blakeney got his amputated aboard ship in Master and Commander – and he made a bit more of a fuss about it than Furiosa. It is of course set in Australia’s vast post-apocalyptic wilderness where warlords in their various compounds rule over precious reserves of food, water, ammo and fuel. Furiosa, played in the first film by Charlize Theron, was notionally in the service of the hateful chieftain Immortan Joe; she was in charge of leading raiding parties against rivals and enemies, and fated herself to be a rebel.
Continue reading...Cannes film festival
First-time actor Agathe Riedinger is a wannabe influencer from the wrong side of the tracks in this forthright and fluent film
Feature first-timer Agathe Riedinger is bringing the TikTok energy for this story of a wannabe Insta influencer-princess from the wrong side of the tracks – but the director is also bringing some pretty old school social realism, exerting its downward gravitational pull. The result is forthright and fluent and fiercely acted by a newcomer lead who, in the time-honoured style of movies like this, is defiant, vulnerable and front and centre of almost every shot. But it also sometimes treads water in terms of narrative, running out of ideas before the end, and its final ambiguity about an ultimate success that is there to be hallucinated rather than achieved feels anticlimactic.
Liane, played by Malou Khebizi, is a 19-year-old with a French and Italian background living in Fréjus in the south of France. She was once given up for foster care by her troubled mother but now taken back home and is now in charge of babysitting her kid sister, whom she is busily turning into a mini-me version of her own brassy, sexualised image. Liane shoplifts and sells the stolen goods – which has paid for her breast-implant surgery and she has also had her lips done. She hangs out with her friends, getting drunk, but is fastidious about how and with whom she’s having sex; she has thousands of followers on her Only-Fans-type insta (although oddly, it doesn’t occur to her to have an actual Only Fans account). Liane also has a poignantly religious sense of her own heroic martyrdom, her ill-treatment at the hands of online haters, men and her appalling mother.
Continue reading...Show follows origins of Bene Gesserit sect as seen in Denis Villeneuve’s movies, with Emily Watson and Olivia Williams
The first trailer for the much-anticipated TV prequel to the recent Dune movies promises a female-fronted look at life 10,000 years before.
Dune: Prophecy will follow the roots of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood led by the Harkonnen siblings, played by Emily Watson and Olivia Williams. Later members of the sect are played by Rebecca Ferguson and Charlotte Rampling on the big screen.
Continue reading...She sprays her sets with scent made from sweat, saliva, blood and sperm – and her unearthly debut about a hoarding mother is bagging awards and acclaim. We meet the wildly talented young director whose next film will be ‘an anti-man manifesto’
To reach Luna Carmoon, who is at the other end of a banquet table tucking into her vegetable pie, I have to shuffle sideways along the narrow gap between the seating and the wall. This means 10 seconds elapse between us spotting one another in the London pie-and-mash shop and finally greeting each other across the table. Then I have to shuffle all the way out again to order at the counter. The 26-year-old film-maker, who has thick, frizzy orange hair, might have engineered the whole situation for maximum cringe. “I always make things weird,” she says with a naughty smile.
The proof is in the pie: her debut feature, Hoard, which won three prizes at last year’s Venice film festival, is one of the stickiest, itchiest and most unsettling movies since the heyday of Harmony Korine. It begins in the early 1980s, with young Maria being mollycoddled by her mother, a loving, smothering hoarder who makes nocturnal trolley runs to nearby skips. When the child is taken into care, the film leaps forward to show teenage Maria now living a sedate life. Until, that is, the arrival of her sweaty, shark-eyed foster brother Michael.
Continue reading...
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
Four lawsuits alleging Hamas ties against Students for Justice in Palestine, the AP, UNRWA, and a cryptocurrency exchange share many of the same plaintiffs.
The post October 7 Survivors Sue Campus Protesters, Say Students Are “Hamas’s Propaganda Division” appeared first on The Intercept.
At least seven schools have reached an agreement with students around investment transparency and exploring divestment from Israel.
The post Some Universities Chose Violence. Others Responded to Protests by Considering Student Demands. appeared first on The Intercept.
On campus, inside the Capitol, and in court, there’s an all-out assault on American democracy in the name of Israel.
The post They Used to Say Arabs Can’t Have Democracy Because It’d Be Bad for Israel. Now the U.S. Can’t Have It Either. appeared first on The Intercept.
The movement to divest from Israel and the defense industry is gaining momentum on college campuses.
The post “A New Sense of World-Building”: Inside the Student Movement for Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
The last big protests cost $150 million in NYPD overtime — with tens of millions more in lawsuit settlements.
The post How Much Money Did the NYPD Waste Quashing Student Protests? We Tallied It Up. appeared first on The Intercept.
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